The present disclosure relates to editing digital audio data.
Digital audio data can include audio data in different digital audio tracks. Tracks are typically distinct audio files. However, a single track can contain multiple audio files (e.g., clips) where each audio file is placed at a different place in time within the track. Tracks can be generated mechanically (e.g., using a distinct microphone as an input source for each track), synthesized (e.g., using a digital synthesizer), or generated as a combination of any number of individual tracks.
A track includes one or more channels (e.g., a stereo track can include two channels, left and right). A channel is a stream of audio samples. For example, a channel can be generated by converting an analog input from a microphone into digital samples using a digital analog converter.
The audio data for a track can be displayed in various visual representations. For example, an amplitude display shows a representation of audio intensity (e.g., a waveform having both positive and negative amplitudes), in the time-domain (e.g., a graphical display with time on the x-axis and amplitude on the y-axis). Similarly, a frequency spectrogram shows a representation of frequencies of the audio data in the time-domain (e.g., a graphical display with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis). Tracks can be played and analyzed alone or in combination with other tracks.
Additionally, the audio data of one or more tracks can be edited. For example, when the dynamic range of the audio data, measured in decibels (“dB”), is greater (e.g., 50 dB) than the dynamic range of the recording device or the sound system (e.g., 20 dB), the audio data will become distorted when recorded or reproduced (e.g., deformation of a waveform output as compared to the waveform input) on another device. To lessen distortion, the dynamic range of the audio data can be edited (or adjusted) by varying the gain, or volume of the audio data.
Gain reduction can be performed manually (e.g., by hand-adjusting faders), or by using a compressor which automatically controls the volume of the audio data (e.g., by decreasing gain as the input amount of audio data increases), through the use of one or more controls (e.g., input level, output level, threshold, ratio, attack time, and release time). The use of a compressor to control the gain of audio data is typically referred to as compression.